Blog

The number of black-owned businesses in Austin is growing. February is Black History Month, an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of blacks in U.S. history. To celebrate Black History Month, Economic Growth Business Incubator (EGBI) recognizes two clients that operate an African food mart and a nonprofit that highlights black history. One brings Ethiopian food to the Austin community, while the other helps youth shape their identity and learn from their past.

Sitotaw Degefaw, one of the owners of Selam International Mart & Café on North Lamar, sells imported Ethiopian and East African foods and spices in his grocery store. Visitors can explore East African culture while enjoying traditional Ethiopian food without the need to travel to Ethiopia. Selam International Mart & Café is a place where the East African community in Austin can come and enjoy their native Ethiopian culture, as well as a place for non-Africans to try something new in a very friendly environment. Degefaw’s favorite part of owning his business is meeting new people and having a place where his community can gather.

He started his business with just an idea. He came to EGBI to get the support he needed for his small business, with the idea of starting a slaughterhouse for a particular type of beef important to Ethiopian food. EGBI helped him to understand the governmental regulations around processing meat, and as his idea got better defined, he had the opportunity to purchase a grocery mart that had space to add a butcher shop for his specialty meat.

He worked with Joni
Foster, EGBI’s Program Director, through one-on-one coaching sessions. “She
connected me to the supplier that slaughters the specialty meat according to my
country’s custom,” Degefaw offered. “She worked with me side by side to make my
dream happen.” He continues to visit with Joni once a month to talk about this
business. For more information about Selam International Mart & Café, visit
selamcafe.com

The Living History
Foundation was founded in February 2018 when the first group of people sat
around the table and called the meeting to order. In the past year, the
organization has received its 501(C)(3) status from the IRS and presented three
living history programs in Central Texas. Edgar B. Garza, the Board President
of Living History Foundation, said, “The mission of the Foundation is to
inspire children and the young-at-heart to learn about the contributions people
of color made in the building of this great nation from the time before the
first Europeans to the present day.

“History is an important
part of our personal lives,” Garza continued. “It is the key to understanding
who we are as humans. The youth will ultimately develop their own perspective
on human life and society. One that is based on stories about ordinary people
just like the youth that are in the program. They will also learn from ordinary
people lessons in courage, leadership, and constructive protest.

It is the first time for many of the board members to be a part of a non-profit organization, but EGBI meets with directors a couple of times per month to help them put everything together. The board gathered in December 2018 to make plans for 2019, and Joni Foster, Program Director at EGBI facilitated the conversation. Keep a lookout for one of the 12 living history programs the organization will offer in the months to come. For more information about the Living History Foundation, visit facebook.com/livinghistoryfoundation.

I always encourage our alumni to visit each chamber or visit with chamber staff to see which organization would best fit their business needs. Here are some of the opportunities the chambers have this month to learn something new or meet other business owners.

Be sure to visit each of their web sites for more events and information about the chambers. Please let me know if you are an alumni and have any questions concerning the chambers as we are active with each of them.

Three years ago I bought an existing pest control company. I had large dreams and not always realistic expectations, but despite some missteps, owning my own business is amazing and going great.

Our company’s differentiators are that we are family owned, good values and no contracts. I have learned many times over that thinking big will not get us as far as focusing on doing the best job possible and those people will tell others.

Our Yelp profile started to bring in organic leads so I
started to focus on it. I made sure to have compelling pictures and content to
make things personable. We do everything
we can to keep customers happy so they leave more good reviews. After a couple
months, I decided to do some paid advertising to try and build up our customer
base and review count.

One of my first jobs out of college was buying online advertising for a large tech company, so I was familiar with the terminology of online advertising contracts. When reading the Yelp contract I came across this verbiage.

Cost-Per-Click (“CPC”) Auction-based Auto-bidding
Program: Yelp delivers a variable and unguaranteed number of
ad impressions to the Site to promote Client’s business, as determined at
Yelp’s sole discretion based on available inventory and other factors, and Client pays Yelp for the number of clicks during
a given period of time. A “click” is
a single instance for which Yelp records that a user acts on an ad impression,
such as clicking on it (including clicks that drive traffic to Client’s Yelp
listing or that lead to phone calls and reservations) or sending Client a
message in connection with it.

There are several alarming words and phrases in here: variable, unguaranteed and Yelp’s sole discretion. So they decide how many impressions (views of your ad) they give and only charge you for the clicks you get. This is standard in the industry. I asked the account representative what the CPC would be and she said it varied and gave me an estimated range. It is not standard that they only list how much you are willing to pay per month rather than CPC in the contract. We discussed my goals and I assumed everything would work out. At $350 per month for 6 months, we would need 5 new sales a month (or 30 overall) to pay for this experiment which seemed reasonable. We created our ads and we were off. I always put people on everything as it makes things more personable, especially when one of our main differentiators is family owned. You can see one of our ads below:

The first thing I learned is that Yelp “clicks” are just to your Yelp profile, not to your website. I was, in essence, paying Yelp to make even more money by having people click around on their site. After a week or so, I was not seeing conversions from clicks to leads or actions and I called Yelp support. They looked over my profile and said that everything looked good and that it might help to add more pictures. We had 6 professional pictures and I couldn’t see how more would help. I believe an issue with conversion was once visitors made it to your Yelp profile they could get distracted by ads by other pest control company ads (see Image 2). There are no real guarantees on leads, since CPC is based on a “formula”. For example, in July, I spent $335 for 31 clicks to see my Yelp profile, which resulted in 11 calls, emails or visits to my company website. This did not result in 5 new sales.

I contacted Yelp support weekly and it was painful. They had pleasant young women answering the phones that would only repeat pre-authorized phrases even if they didn’t answer or address my question, which was maddening. Right away I could see this was going to be an issue. I did everything I could to get credits and see what they could change to better fit my company’s needs.

The campaign did result in leads, but we had two main issues with the people that contacted us. The first was that people expect to hear back right away, and we have specific business hours. If Yelp flooded our impressions over the weekend and people contact us, we didn’t respond until Monday, which was too late. Yelp support said they had no control over what days the ads were shown. The other issue was people primarily shopping for bargain priced pest control. Some companies will offer $25 pest control and they don’t do much. We provide a quality service, guarantee it and treat our employees fairly, which is not cheap. This meant that many of the leads Yelp generated for us were not good match. Over all the advertising campaign did not meet our goals of 5 new customers a month and resulted in a lot of work and frustration on my part. Below is a snapshot of three months .

On the bright side. The organic leads we get from Yelp are usually good so we switched went back to that model. The leads we received in 2017 were about steady with what we did in 2016. In 2018 our leads shot up. I am not sure if it was how long we had our profile up or that our reviews increased, but we got better in their “formula” and got more leads .

While my experience was not great with Yelp paid advertising, their organic leads are great. I believe if a company has a more expensive service, or product, it could be more beneficial. I don’t believe Yelp will be flexible with their pricing, duration of contract or other details to make businesses more successful, but you can always try. Yelp itself is a good platform for our business as we get more leads than through Google or other advertising methods. I would suggest going into it knowing exactly what you need to get out of it. For us it was not enough to continue paying and the organic leads far outweigh the paid. Free and better is good enough for me, even if it won’t double our business.

By: Hye June Park

Jason McClain and his wife, Silvia Solorzano, had a vision four years ago to start McClain Metal Works. From a modest beginning in 2014 working from their garage with one client, Jason and Silvia now have a shop, a team of six employees working full time, and lots of ideas to grow in 2019.

Over the years, Jason grew a reputation in Austin
as “The Metal Wizard”. Jason learned on old school 1940 machinery and his talent
earned him recognition which in turn encouraged him to open his own business.

Jason and Silvia manage the business together
from fabrication to office paperwork. “We are constantly learning from our
projects. Every project is unique. Some are designed as a piece of art or as
décor, some are designed for industrial or commercial purposes. Sometimes both
architectural and art are integrated to meet functionality and décor at the
same time. We never get bored with this kind of challenges. McClain Metal
Works’ goals for the business 2019 is to expand their services.”, explains
Silvia.

Currently, they have a nice variety of clients,
from interior designers, architects, construction companies, to DIY homeowners.

The McCain’s story is one with lots of sweat and hard work combined with training, coaching and support from Economic Growth Business Incubator (EGBI) . Silvia took classes at EGBI years before the two of them met. “The people at EGBI are there when we needed them the most, not only with the classes but during the process of the business growing, and to help us to find the solutions that we need.”

“We are so happy at how fast we have expanded
our capabilities. Today, we are a team
of six people working full time in our shop. The more we grow and expand, the
more help we need on operating the business.
We always go to Economic Growth Business Incubator (EGBI) when we need
help, they provide us the coaching we need.”

PEOPLETALK SPEAKER SERIES

wednesdAY, november 7, 2018

Join us in San Antonio on November 7 for PeopleTalk with Elijah May of The Experience Firm.

Elijah May is co-founder and managing partner of The Experience Firm, a customer experience consultancy focused on building brands and driving word of mouth. Elijah’s career as a brand strategist spans over two decades and began at his alma mater, the University of Southern California, where he managed the University’s appearance in commercials, TV shows and movies. Since moving to Austin in 2006, he has launched numerous startups, lectured at every college and University in town, and designed customer experiences for some of the world’s most famous brands. His personal mission is to help companies realize the ROI of investing in people.

Certification 101: Overview and Application Forms Review

Thursday, November 15, 2018

The City of Austin’s Small & Minority Business Resources Department (SMBR) invites for-profit business owners interested in working with government contracts are invited to learn more about small and minority business enterprise certifications and how they can be used as a marketing tool for businesses that are qualified.

Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) for City of Austin funded contracts and projects

Small Business Enterprise (SBE) which is a race and gender neutral certification for single scoped construction projects.

The City also has an agreement with the State of Texas to review applications for Historically Underutilized Business Enterprise (HUB) certification when application is submitted with MBE/WBE or DBE application. If approved, qualified HUB candidates will receive their certificate from the State of Texas.

Corridor Construction Program Workshop for Businesses

Tue, October 16, 2018 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Mobility, safety and connectivity improvements are planned for nine major Austin roadways. The City of Austin Corridor Program Office and the Austin Chamber of Commerce are hosting workshops for businesses located along those roadways to request their input in preparation for construction. The improvements are funded in part by the voter-approved 2016 Mobility Bond and are part of the Corridor Construction Program that Austin City Council adopted in spring 2018. Attendees will also have an opportunity to review improvements coming to each corridor and speak with project team members.

Join us for one of the three Sessions on October 16. The same information and input opportunities will be available at each of the three times listed below. Please RSVP by selecting the ticket cooridinating to the session you plan to attend so we can adequetly prepare.

FINANCIAL EDUCATION FRIDAYS WITH BBVA COMPASS

PeopleFund will be hosting a series of free workshops called Financial Education Fridays under BBVA Compass Center’s Pilot Program. The goal of this program is to provide free financial education, which includes classes on small business and personal finance.

We will be offering a series of workshops in different PeopleFund offices, including:

Strategic Pricing

Tue, October 30, 2018 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Pricing is the fastest and most effective way for companies to increase profitability. Studies show that a 1% increase in pricing has a greater positive impact on profitability than does a 1% increase in sales volume or a 1% decrease in costs. Unfortunately, too many companies do not think tactically about pricing and do not effectively price for profitability. This workshop is designed to help small business owners and managers to understand common mistakes that companies make in pricing and learn best pricing practices that will enable them to maximize company profitability.

This class is taught by a University of Texas Instructor and counts toward the 6 course requirement needed to earn your Business Skills Certification.

PowerUp Austin! City of Austin & Wells Fargo

Thu, Oct 11, 4:00 – 6:30PM at LCRA Red Bud Center

Description

The PowerUp Austin! series engages in conversation around “hot topics” to drive your success.

This Power Up Austin! event will bring together two dynamic topics presented by industry experts.

Managing Business Credit

Good credit is one of a business owner’s most valuable assets. Building credit is an active, ongoing process that takes careful management. Wells Fargo Bank’s Business Banking Manager Mike Lancaster and Senior Business Relationship Manager Eeva Carr will focus on the credit and financing needs of businesses like yours. They’ll cover how credit and lending work, explore access to capital and cash flow analysis, and show you how to make the most of your credit opportunities – both traditional and nontraditional.

7 Ways to “Get It Right” in Improving your Workplace Dynamics

Companies in the Austin region work hard to operate at peak performance by focusing on the fight to retain talent, alternative ways to get work done, and perfecting lean and fast operations. David Hughen will share his experiences working with hundreds of companies and how they ‘get it right’. Come learn how employers are addressing the evolution of workplace dynamics.

October 13 & 14, 2018

En español abajo

Facilitators: Gail Christopher, ND and Jamie Harvey, PE“Our work is overcoming a great divide… the hierarchy of human value.” –Dr Gail Christopher

Austin Health Commons is fully committed to a new paradigm shift to conscious health care and affordable access for everyone to holistic healthcare.

Planned to be a public trust, the Austin Health Commons shifts ownership of health care from corporations back to community, and cultivates root cause community healing.

In October, we will welcome Dr. Christopher and Jamie Harvey as our facilitators. Dr. Gail Christopher, formerly Senior Advisor at the Kellogg Institute & architect of Truth, Racial Healing, Transformation circles, for our Austin Health Commons 2018 Vision in Creation gathering: Truth, Racial Healing, Transformation. Jamie Harvie, PE is the Executive Director of Duluth, MN based Institute for a Sustainable Future (ISF) and is nationally recognized for his extensive experience at the intersection of health, community, environment and healthcare.

Join us as we bring together diverse groups of Austinites to share our stories to create connection and understanding. That sharing is healing, and once we heal from our collective past, it is transformative for our city.

October 13: Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation Circles

On Day 1, we will gather in circles of 25 diverse community members and respond to questions designed to foster authentic exchange and affirm our shared human experience. This deep relational process will help us build capacity for listening and a deeper sense of connection to folks ‘different’ than us, which allows us to begin to address root cause healing in our community.

October 14: Austin Health Commons: Racial Healing in Action

On Day 2, we will build on our newly created capacity to collectively envision a Healthy Healed Austin, map assets, and set priorities. We will deepen together, co-create, and define what we Conscious Health Care to look like in Austin – ending the economic segregation of healthcare.

Are you ready?

It takes a village. To keep our momentum moving forward, we need administrative and communications support, event planners, fundraising and legal entity development, childcare, and community participants to grow the vision. Please let us know if you have a skill you would like to bring to our work – email austinhealthcommons@gmail.com.

How to Write a Business Plan

Thu, October 18, 2018, 9:00AM – 4:00PM

This course provides a practical, step-by-step instruction in how to develop a business plan for a small start-up business or the expansion of an existing business. A business plan can be submitted to a financial institution or private investor for funding or used for implementation. Emphasis will be placed on a plan’s components, format, marketing and financial projections and analysis. This class will teach you how to review all the various components of a business plan and apply learned concepts in developing a plan for your own business.

This class is taught by a University of Texas Instructor and counts toward the 6 course requirement needed to earn your Business Skills Certification.

PowerUp Austin! City of Austin & Wells Fargo

Thu, Oct 11, 4:00 – 6:30PM at LCRA Red Bud Center

Description

The PowerUp Austin! series engages in conversation around “hot topics” to drive your success.

This Power Up Austin! event will bring together two dynamic topics presented by industry experts.

Managing Business Credit

Good credit is one of a business owner’s most valuable assets. Building credit is an active, ongoing process that takes careful management. Wells Fargo Bank’s Business Banking Manager Mike Lancaster and Senior Business Relationship Manager Eeva Carr will focus on the credit and financing needs of businesses like yours. They’ll cover how credit and lending work, explore access to capital and cash flow analysis, and show you how to make the most of your credit opportunities – both traditional and nontraditional.

7 Ways to “Get It Right” in Improving your Workplace Dynamics

Companies in the Austin region work hard to operate at peak performance by focusing on the fight to retain talent, alternative ways to get work done, and perfecting lean and fast operations. David Hughen will share his experiences working with hundreds of companies and how they ‘get it right’. Come learn how employers are addressing the evolution of workplace dynamics.

October 13 & 14, 2018

En español abajo

Facilitators: Gail Christopher, ND and Jamie Harvey, PE“Our work is overcoming a great divide… the hierarchy of human value.” –Dr Gail Christopher

Austin Health Commons is fully committed to a new paradigm shift to conscious health care and affordable access for everyone to holistic healthcare.

Planned to be a public trust, the Austin Health Commons shifts ownership of health care from corporations back to community, and cultivates root cause community healing.

In October, we will welcome Dr. Christopher and Jamie Harvey as our facilitators. Dr. Gail Christopher, formerly Senior Advisor at the Kellogg Institute & architect of Truth, Racial Healing, Transformation circles, for our Austin Health Commons 2018 Vision in Creation gathering: Truth, Racial Healing, Transformation. Jamie Harvie, PE is the Executive Director of Duluth, MN based Institute for a Sustainable Future (ISF) and is nationally recognized for his extensive experience at the intersection of health, community, environment and healthcare.

Join us as we bring together diverse groups of Austinites to share our stories to create connection and understanding. That sharing is healing, and once we heal from our collective past, it is transformative for our city.

October 13: Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation Circles

On Day 1, we will gather in circles of 25 diverse community members and respond to questions designed to foster authentic exchange and affirm our shared human experience. This deep relational process will help us build capacity for listening and a deeper sense of connection to folks ‘different’ than us, which allows us to begin to address root cause healing in our community.

October 14: Austin Health Commons: Racial Healing in Action

On Day 2, we will build on our newly created capacity to collectively envision a Healthy Healed Austin, map assets, and set priorities. We will deepen together, co-create, and define what we Conscious Health Care to look like in Austin – ending the economic segregation of healthcare.

Are you ready?

It takes a village. To keep our momentum moving forward, we need administrative and communications support, event planners, fundraising and legal entity development, childcare, and community participants to grow the vision. Please let us know if you have a skill you would like to bring to our work – email austinhealthcommons@gmail.com.

a global giving movement / #GivingTuesday

Tue, November 27, 2018

Collaborate. #GivingTuesday is all about collaboration and is a great opportunity to work with new teams both inside and outside of your organization. Organize a cross-department committee to lead your organization’s #GivingTuesday initiative. Approach a like-minded charity, business, or school to partner with and create a joint campaign.

Set your goal. Having a clear and S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic, Time-based) goal will help guide the next steps to your #GivingTuesday plans. Define your goal and then think creatively about how you can achieve that objective. 82% of participating organizations use #GivingTuesday to experiment – think beyond the traditional fundraising asks and use this as an opportunity to do something different with your team. And remember – your goal does not have to tied to fundraising. It can be about engaging volunteers, building your social media presence, running a crowdfunding campaign, launching a new program, and more.

Start sharing. These next few weeks are going to fly by. Start sharing your plans with your team and community. Tweet, post, and share any news, sneak peeks and updates about your goal and campaign on our blog. All you need to do is complete this form with your text and an image from your organization or campaign and we will post on our site. We may even give you a special shout out on social media 🙂

Event Details

Register: https://egbiaustin.wufoo.com/forms/zmxnnjd0vb8rrx/
Develop a useful plan to open your business. Build your financial projections and your marketing plans so that you will

more

Event Details

Register: https://egbiaustin.wufoo.com/forms/zmxnnjd0vb8rrx/

Develop a useful plan to open your business. Build your financial projections and your marketing plans so that you will know how to launch your business. Local subject matter experts assist you to develop your strategy for your business.BUILD your business plan is a series of 8 workshops.

Participants receive a notebook to record your ideas, and up to 2 private coaching sessions with an EGBI business coach. The cost for BUILD your business plan is flexible depending on your income, ranging from $35 to $150 for all 8 classes. Scholarships are available!